Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Song of Achilles, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Honor, Pride, and Legacy
Fate, Belief, and Control
Gender, Power, and Agency
Love, Violence, and Redemption
Selfhood and Responsibility
Summary
Analysis
Achilles watches the battle from camp. He knows that soon Patroclus will return—but he sees someone fall, and then Odysseus and Menelaus bring a body back. Achilles realizes what has happened, and he screams and sobs, holding Patroclus’s body. Patroclus—whose soul is still present in the room, though he’s dead and invisible—can almost feel him. Briseis enters, sees what happened, and wails. Menelaus tells Achilles that Hector did this. When Achilles grabs his spear, Odysseus tells him he has to wait until tomorrow. Thetis comes, and tells Achilles that Patroclus doomed himself. Watching her son madly cradle a corpse, she says that she’ll bring him armor.
The ancient Greeks believed that when someone died, their body needed to be burned, ashes buried, and grave marked before they’d be able to go to the underworld and be at rest. This is why Patroclus is still present and narrating the novel’s events—no one has buried his body yet, so his soul is remains present. Achilles was tempting fate every time he said that Hector had done nothing to him and when he told Patroclus that he’d be angry if someone took something from him. Hector ended up taking the only thing Achilles cares about, and Achilles is clearly going to kill him at the earliest possible opportunity, which will lead to his own death eventually. Further, it was Achilles’s own pride that led to Patroclus’s death. Thetis’s statement that Patroclus doomed himself is, at best, incomplete. But Thetis has often pushed Achilles to set aside his human half in her desire to have him ascend to godhood, and this may just be another part of that effort. Regardless, now Patroclus’s death will drive Achilles to kill Hector—love driving violence.
Themes
Achilles receives visitor after visitor. Agamemnon comes to return Briseis, not realizing that she already came to see Patroclus’s body. Agamemnon seems to expect gratitude for bringing her back. Telling Achilles that he’s glad they’re allies again, Agamemnon asks if he’ll fight; Achilles says, very fiercely, that he will and that he’ll be dead soon. Patroclus, whose soul is observing the scene like a ghost, thinks that Achilles must be picturing Hector’s death. Agamemnon says that Patroclus killed Sarpedon, which was a brave act. Dully, Achilles tells Agamemnon that he wishes Patroclus had let the whole Greek army die.
Agamemnon continues to see Briseis as an object, now he uses her to barter his way back into Achilles’s good graces (still not realizing that Achilles doesn’t care about Briseis and that Briseis only cares about Patroclus). Achilles seems to have stopped caring about his honor—his love-fueled need for vengeance at Patroclus’s death has made him uninterested in his honor-based conflict with Agamemnon. When Achilles came to Troy, he chose his honor over a life with Patroclus. Now, he’s giving up on honor and his life for Patroclus’s sake; though this decision has come too late. And Achilles isn’t exactly doing what’s best for Patroclus, either—Patroclus never wanted Achilles to kill Hector, because that would result in Achilles’s eventual death as well. It's safe to assume that Patroclus also wouldn’t want Achilles to turn into a cold-blooded killer, but that’s exactly what Achilles has decided to do. In fact, Achilles clearly didn’t learn anything from this whole ordeal: he says that he wishes Patroclus had let everyone die, when Patroclus died to prevent exactly that from happening. Even though the Greek conception of honor doesn’t mean much to Achilles anymore, he’s not embracing Patroclus’s ideas of honor either.
Themes
Briseis comes to clean the corpse. Achilles yells at her to leave, but she insists that she loved Patroclus, too. She blames Achilles for letting him go, and accuses him of caring more about Patroclus now that he’s dead. Patroclus was worth “ten of” Achilles, she claims, and Achilles indirectly killed him. Achilles screams that he never wanted Patroclus to fight, but Briseis presses on: Achilles never deserved Patroclus, and Achilles was the one who gave him no choice but to go. Patroclus wanted to save Achilles’s reputation, but Achilles doesn’t care about anyone but himself. She says that she hopes Hector kills him. Achilles responds that he hopes that happens, too.
Briseis forces Achilles to confront that he put his honor over everything else before Patroclus’s death, and that he should have prioritized his love for Patroclus. Briseis’s claim that Patroclus was better than Achilles again implies that Patroclus was the “best of the Myrmidons,” and that he was the “best” not because of his fighting skills but because of his kindness. Achilles seems unwilling to take responsibility for his actions even now—although he did love Patroclus, Briseis is right that he also indirectly caused Patroclus’s death. Achilles’s comment that he hopes Hector kills him indicates that he feels that, with Patroclus dead, he has nothing to live for. This is an expression of love, but also of continued self-centeredness: Achilles focuses only on his own pain.
Themes
The next day in battle, Achilles charges at Hector, killing everyone in his path. Hector evades him. It’s not cowardice; he just knows he won’t live if Achilles finds him. Hector is wearing Achilles’s armor, which he took from Patroclus’s body, so it looks like Achilles is, bizarrely, chasing himself. Hector jumps into a river to avoid Achilles, and a large figure emerges to block Achilles from following: Scamander, the river god. Achilles doesn’t have any spears, just a sword—his spears are in the bodies of others.
Violence always leads to more violence, spilling out on all sides: Achilles in his quest for vengeance kills not just Hector but anyone in his way. That it looks as if Achilles is chasing himself symbolically captures the idea that Achilles anger is not just at Hector, but also at himself. He wants vengeance on Hector, but he also knows that the only way he himself can die is if he kills Hector. Achilles’s despair at losing Patroclus drives him to vengeance, but also suicide. Throughout the novel Patroclus has imagined Achilles as having too selves—an innocent, human true self and an inhuman murderous “other” self. Yet in this scene both selves are warriors, both are killers—the idea that Achilles ever had two selves is shown to be false; he only ever had one complicated self, capable of beauty and innocence, and also dreadful violence.
Themes
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Scamander keeps grabbing for Achilles, who dodges him. Eventually, Achilles begins to grow tired. He leaps for Scamander, but he isn’t fast enough and he stumbles. The god swings his staff—but he and Patroclus (whose soul is watching the scene from afar) should have both known better, because Achilles never stumbles. Achilles stabs Scamander, who limps away. The other gods watching start to worry: Achilles just beat one of their own, and Troy isn’t supposed to lose this war yet. Patroclus knows that they shouldn’t be concerned; Achilles only wants Hector.
Achilles’s tricking of Scamander is not something he would have done at the start of the novel when his personal honor code outlawed deception of any kind. This fighting style is closest to Odysseus’s; Patroclus noted earlier that Odysseus likes to fake out his opponents. Achilles has given up on all forms of honor now. It’s interesting that the gods are fearful that Achilles’s might will allow him to subvert fate after all. It seems that fate is mysterious to everyone, even the gods—and also shows why the gods would always try to thwart Achilles.
Themes
Achilles finds Hector in a grove below Troy’s walls. Eyes wide, Hector asks Achilles to return his body to his family after he dies. Achilles refuses to make a bargain with Hector; instead, he says that he’ll “eat [him] raw.” Achille’s ash spear strikes Hector’s throat. Covered in blood, Achilles drags Hector’s body back to the Greek camp, refusing the feast Agamemnon offers. Thetis encourages him to return Hector’s body to the Trojans, but Achilles won’t.
There’s no mention of Hector’s weapon here, which suggests he may be unarmed. Earlier in the novel, Achilles claimed that he’d never hurt someone who was unarmed, but that was when he cared about honor. Achilles refusal to treat Hector’s dead body with respect is an even more fundamental refusal of basic Greek and Trojan propriety and religious practice. Achilles’s last words to Hector recall his earlier declaration to Patroclus that he would be the first hero to be happy, and that he could “eat the world raw.” At the time, he believed that his love for Patroclus would save him. Now, it’s obvious that his love for Patroclus has driven him to a despair so deep he is defying every tenet of Greek religion, and is even defying his goddess mother. That he kills Hector in cold blood with the spear that Chiron gave him—a weapon, but one that resembled the lyre of Patroclus’s mother—signals the utter end of Achilles connection to innocence and beauty. Meanwhile, Agamemnon remains grotesque himself, with his suggestion of a feast to celebrate victory in light of all that has happened.
Themes
While Achilles sleeps, Patroclus speaks to him from the grave. He asks Achilles to burn Patroclus’s corpse so that Patroclus’s soul can find peace. Patroclus will then wait for Achilles in the underworld, where they can be together after death. But Patroclus can’t finish his instructions before Achilles wakes up, sobbing and clutching Patroclus’s corpse.
Patroclus offers Achilles a possibility of hope and peace, of being reunited in the afterlife. But Achilles clearly hasn’t fully accepted Patroclus’s death yet, because he’s fixated on Patroclus’s corpse.
Themes
Achilles begins dragging Hector’s body around. Back in his tent, Thetis tells him to stop, that he’s angering Apollo. Thetis claims that her power has saved Achilles, but Achilles scoffs, saying her power can’t bring Patroclus back. He adds that she always hated Patroclus, and if she hadn’t gone to Zeus and asked him to ensure that the Greek army lost without Achilles, Patroclus would still be alive. What good is Thetis if she can’t help now? Thetis tells him that she shouldn’t have left Achilles on Pelion; it softened him, such that he’s no longer her son. She says that Pyrrhus is only twelve, and he’s already “more of a man,” the next Aristos Achaion, and that when Pyrrhus comes to Troy, Troy will fall. She continues, saying that Achilles has given up greatness for a rotting corpse. Finally, she tells him that she’s glad Patroclus is dead. This is the last thing she’ll ever tell him.
Not only does Achilles not return Hector’s body, he further desecrates it, in cold blood. Thetis at first attempts to guide Achilles; she still hopes to get him to ascend to godhood. But Achilles refuses; he cares more about Patroclus than about his honor, legacy, or earthly or divine power. As Achilles embraces his human love for Patroclus, Thetis disavows him as her child—while the implication is that she never cared about Achilles human half, Thetis’s tone implies that she may just be lashing out because Achilles has hurt her. Achilles’s accusations against Thetis, after all, can’t be described as fair either; his grief has made him impossible to be reached, but also made him unwilling to take responsibility for his own role in what happened. This scene also reintroduces Pyrrhus, and establishes him as someone who will uphold the ideas of Greek “manliness” that Achilles never entirely believed in and has now given up on entirely. Achilles’s whole story is proof that Greek honor only leads to misery, but Thetis is clearly still instilling the same values in Pyrrhus.
Themes
